RUPTURE OF THE DIAPHRAGM IN A HORSE. 269 
mit a man’s bead through it. The laceration extended in a hori- 
zontal transverse direction from right side to left, within a hand’s 
breadth of the sternum and cartilages of the ribs, and was most 
conspicuous opposite to the stomach, where, indeed, it had the 
appearance of having commenced. And what seemed to corrobo- 
rate this supposition was the distended state of the stomach with 
gas ; though this, of course, might have happened after death, so 
many hours having elapsed before the post-mortem inspection was 
made. There was another circumstance present which appeared to 
have been indirectly connected with the rupture in the diaphragm, 
and that was hypertrophy of the heart ; it weighing eight pounds 
twelve ounces. A third circumstance favouring the giving way 
of the muscle on any extra effort being made, was the general state 
of obesity in which every part and organ where about adeps ordi- 
narily is deposited was found. 
Reflection on the Case led me to consider that causes 
unworthy of notice in a general way deserved to be inquired into 
here, on account of the predisposed condition to rupture of the 
diaphragm in which the horse, with his distended stomach, hyper- 
trophied heart, and obese state of body, evidently appeared to be ; 
and therefore it was conjectured that any struggles or efforts at 
disengagement he might have made at the time that his leg was 
over the bail or chain might have produced the rupture ; the reason 
of his not falling dead at the time being that the rent in the dia- 
phragm was at first but a small one. 
Another way of accounting for the rupture was, that his tympa- 
nitic stomach causing a fit of colic, and the pain of the attack of 
colic being the cause of his faltering in his step and dropping 
down, the laceration of the diaphragm happened in the fall, causing 
his death in five minutes afterwards. 
The hypertrophy of the heart did not appear to me to be such as 
to occasion any material interference with or alteration of its func- 
tions, much less to have any thing further to do with the death of 
the animal than in some such manner as I have ventured in theo- 
rization to suggest. 
VOL, xx. 
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